Chapter 377 Xiaoliu... What's going on?

Qin Minghuang was stunned.

Is Pei Xuanyun getting senile? Is he crazy?

How could he do something that would shake the foundation of the country for a hundred thousand taels of silver?

Impossible, absolutely impossible!

In an instant, Qin Minghuang made a judgment.

I have to say that any normal person can see the absurdity of this information.

"Uh..." Yinzhe paused, his expression under the veil was quite subtle, and he quickly added:

"Your Majesty, please calm down. Actually... that prediction didn't really come from the Pei Mansion. It was... sold to the Wen family by the Sixth Prince."

"What?!"

Qin Minghuang's voice suddenly rose, her eyebrows raised, her eyes wide open,

"Nonsense! This is absolute nonsense!"

She never imagined that Xiaoliu was involved in this.

Okay, I thought he had been behaving himself since returning to Beijing. It was just that he had taken revenge on the Duke's Mansion before.

She tried to plot against the royal heir and even implicated the prime minister, but she didn't care how they did it.

What's more, her action was consistent with her own attitude, which was just a warning to Duke Zheng.

Who would have thought that Zhao Yue had quietly done another big thing.

The provincial examination questions, is that something she dares to get involved in?

Qin Minghuang was so angry that his chest heaved violently and he didn't know where to start.

"Your Majesty, please do not worry. In fact, the situation is quite complicated."

There was a strange light in Yinzhe's eyes, which were usually calm.

She also never expected that Xiaoliu could accomplish such a big thing quietly while defrauding the Duke's Mansion.

Without waiting for His Majesty to ask, he immediately began to explain in detail.

The predicted topic for the preliminary examination did come from the Pei Mansion, or to be more precise, from the hand of Pei Xueqiao, the eldest son of the Pei family.

However, the topic of this serious provincial examination had nothing to do with the Pei family.

It was Xiaoliu who sent his men to the most famous academies in Fengjing.

He combined the guesses of several great scholars and bought them at a high price to compile them into a treasure book of predicting the topics, spending a total of a thousand taels of silver.

Qin Minghuang breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this.

Fortunately, it only involves the preliminary test, and she still trusts the Pei family in her heart.

But this matter is sensitive after all, and that silly boy Pei Xueqiao... actually dared to agree to it.

However, when he thought of the price of the transaction, Qin Minghuang couldn't help but twitch the corners of his mouth.

Wow, he started with a capital of one thousand taels and then sold it for one hundred thousand taels.

How is this any different from blatant robbery? This unfortunate kid is truly suited to being a profiteer.

"And then?" Qin Minghuang continued to ask, pressing his throbbing solar plexus.

"Due to the recent large-scale arrests by the Xuanji Guards, the intelligence network of the aristocratic families in the capital suffered a significant impact in a short period of time.

Then the manpower available to Shen Yuanzhang should be greatly limited.

Amidst the panic, they dared not go out to collect intelligence in a big way.

They must have planted spies within the Wen family and learned the top-secret information that they spent a huge sum of 100,000 taels to purchase the prediction from the Pei Mansion."

"I've confirmed before that Wen Tingwan's knowledge of the classics is average, but her poetry is passable, as can be seen from her initial examination papers.

The main reason why the final ranking was in the upper middle level was due to its policy papers.

Pei Xueqi did have some skills. Relying on his own knowledge and judgment, he actually guessed one question correctly.

Wen Tingwan simply made some minor revisions and copied it in, and ultimately achieved a good ranking.”

"Shen Yuanzhang probably also had this information and used it as a starting point.

On the one hand, he threatened the lives of the entire Wen family to force Wen Tingwan to submit and cheat in the provincial examination;

On the other hand, the examiner Li Jingyao, who had been hiding for many years, was used as a chess piece.

Their wishful thinking was probably that since they had the Pei Mansion's policy papers as collateral, even if Wen Tingwan's other qualities were inferior, overall she would most likely fall into the "ambiguous" range that could be manipulated..."

Having said that, everything is very clear.

Qin Minghuang opened his mouth slightly, and was completely stunned.

No, what does this have to do with anything?

Xuanji Guard and Aristocratic Family Secret Agents, two of the most advanced and secretive intelligence organizations, use all their tricks to compete with each other, fighting wits and courage...

In the end, the game produced such an unexpected and ridiculous result?

The source of all this was actually a scam perpetrated by his daughter who was not doing her job properly?

"Your Majesty," Yinzhe's voice pulled the empress out of her chaotic thoughts, "I have already reviewed Wen Tingwan's answers in this provincial examination."

"Oh?" Qin Minghuang came back to his senses and asked quickly, "How is it?"

Yinzhe's eyes narrowed slightly, and a playful arc appeared at the corner of his mouth under the veil.

"Because the 'treasure book' didn't hit the policy topic, her essay was really lackluster.

It simply didn't fall into the "ambiguous" range and was eliminated in the first round of grading."

Qin Minghuang: ...

Well, no matter how the mastermind behind the scenes schemes, the real boss can’t do anything about it.

The atmosphere in the imperial study suddenly became very strange. He wanted to laugh but felt it seemed inappropriate.

After a long silence, Qin Minghuang spoke again, his tone filled with indescribable complexity:

"Xiao Liu, this..."

Enjoy it?

How dare this unfortunate kid be so bold as to interfere in the imperial examination and even cheat people under the banner of the Pei Mansion!

She must be implying that the predicted questions came from an extraordinary source and were mixed with real questions.

Otherwise, the Wen family is not fools, why would they willingly pay a huge sum of 100,000 taels just to buy a prediction?

The most important thing was that they had luckily guessed the answer during the initial test, which gave them infinite hope.

Punishment?

But it was precisely because of Xiaoliu's unintentional act of deceiving others that he accidentally provided Xuanji Guard with an excellent breakthrough opportunity.

Finally, they followed the clues and successfully identified Shen Yuanzhang, the mastermind behind the family intelligence network.

Qin Minghuang opened his mouth for a long time, but couldn't say anything.

It is really difficult to judge the merits and demerits. In the end, all my words turned into a long sigh.

"well……"

What is this called...